Memeish

And if anyone would like to ask me one or five questions, go right ahead. In fact, you can ask me any question you'd like, no matter what. I don't get offended and I'll try to answer sounding smart. Okay, I promise that I'll try to try. *g*

The Q and A:

1. What piece of your own writing have you been the most proud of and why?

I thought about this one for quite a bit. "Betrayer" is my 'epic' but there's a few parts that I'm not happy about, a few things I think could have been fixed. "Hallelujah" a Buffy fic which got little feedback or response is one I'm proud of, but still, I just don't think it's my "best." But when it comes down to it, there's one choice:

I think I did everything right. I nailed the character voice perfectly, Aeryn is difficult to write for because she's very sparse and to really be true to the character, I had to keep myself from getting overtly flowerly and elegant. This made me really chose my words carefully, I had to think about my sentences and cut out anything that didn't work. It was refreshing to write through someone's eyes, almost every line is clearly showing that these events and things are being recorded or noticed by Aeryn, and in her sparse way, are being described.

I had used a test audience (gatorjen and nariya) to gauge their reactions to the first four parts only so that when they got to read the final fifth part (after I edited it), they were surprised. I did this to make sure that the big surprise was both shocking and was not completely out of the blue and I was incredibly happy that it did make sense for them, I have to say that their support made me extra-confident and aided me in finishing the story much quicker than I'd write such a long piece (I'm a slacker by nature).

I've talked before of how I dreamed the story, I honestly did: I dreamed of the character of Michael and his too blue eyes and the white hospital corridors drenched in too much light with curtains billowing with a breez that does not comfort and rain falling from the sky. I wanted to create the perfect tone, atmosphere, and have the proper amount of drama. I wanted it to feel like a dream, while also having the storyline be linear, which the reader wouldn't realize until the fifth part. I wanted it to be melancholy and hopeful and I wanted that last line to be haunting. I accomplished that. So I'm proudest of that story.

2. What did you want to be when you grew up when you were 8?

When I was really little, according to my mom, I wanted to be a shoe salesman. But as my memory's never been my strong suit and my mom's a tad daft (not cool like Jack, though), the career I do remember wanting most was that of a cartoonist. Through middle and high school, if you look at my notebooks, there are tons of drawings, but I never had the talent or a steady enough hand to master drawing. By the time I was twelve my dyslexia I don't quite know how to say it, it wasn't "mastered" per se, I just could actually write pretty easily and didn't mess up my letters anymore, I found that if I couldn't tell my ideas in images that I would capture them in words. I actually didn't write at all when I was really young: that came later, when my dinosaurs and dragons and sad, lonely princesses were still so wobbly and poorly drawn that I turned my pens (I prefered to draw in ink) to words, fitting stories to these characters. But oh, when I was eight years old, I wanted to be a cartoonist, I wanted to draw so badly.

3. What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

Strange depends on what people see as odd. I've had snails before, I was tricked by my mom. A thing high on the ick factor that I've intentionally eaten and still defend, was when I ate frozen fishsticks. Yes. Frozen. As in not cooked at all. Straight from the freezer. And I liked them. And I didn't get sick from them. This from a girl who gets ill from the smell of mayonaise. (Which I convinced is a food of the Devil.)

4. What song most frequently gets stuck in your head?

I'm not a very musical person, I listen to the radio and that's all. I haven't answered this at all. Hmm. I honestly don't think there's a *song* that really gets stuck in my head.

But if the theme music counts, then Curb Your Enthusiam counts, because that's the music in my head. Especially the part where the score does the instrumental part of "Three Little Maids" or whatever it's called. That's always in my head. Not because my life is like CYE at all, it's more that it's damn catch music and weird or ironic moments in life are perfectly punctuated by it's score.

5. What movie could you watch forever and never get sick of? Why that movie?

Oh, the answer's so clear. The Princess Bride. I may incur purple_smurf's wrath, but I love the movie SO much more than the book. It has everything and it has a heroine who while slighlty annoying is not a dumbass just waiting around to be saved! And Inigo. You kill my father. Prepare to die. Just yes. I was heartbroken when I was younger to learn that he wasn't really Spanish, because he was like, a Spanish hero! Who spoke in rhyme with a giant!

The movie has everything. The fireswamp scene scared me when I was little and now it amuses me, the kiss reaction was the same for me as the boy when I was little too ("is this a kissing book?"), but now it's more just "awww." Death is not enough to stop true love! If you have to trace where that scary 'shipper in me was born, this movie is the birtplace.

A quick synopsis of the movie: Violence! Danger! Nebbish healers! Not a witch, but a wife! True Love! Pain! Six fingered men! Mostly dead! Torture chamber! Rolling down hills! Rodents of Unusual Size! Beating a Sicilian! Poison! Knifes that do not cut into perfect breasts! Is that peanut?!! Dread pirates! Comedy! As You Wish, yes I do wish, that I could see this movie again!